Silence in the Work: Beauty and Creativity in an Infant Observation

From the time he invents his first security blanket … or humming sound or stroking gesture or rocking motion, the human being reserves a part of his existence for the re-creation of an intermediate world of illusion in which the me and not me can once again be reunited. Poetry and art create this intermediate space.

This paper follows a sequence of activity in which a closely observed baby engages in early stages of symbolic play that demonstrate his capacity to experience a living, creative process. This sequence focuses on the baby's sensory experience in an atmosphere of attentive silence, which I suggest then allows the baby to enjoy an aesthetic experience of beauty and creativity in which emotional work takes place. I begin by introducing the observed family and describing my initial meeting with them followed by a brief history of the observed family. I then define my role as observer and think about the role of silence as a facilitating medium in the emergence of imaginal space and as a paradigm for analytic listening. I present several observations of the baby and the mother. In the first observation I describe how the sensory floor was developed. In the second I describe the baby's ability to play in transitional space, which then leads him into an aesthetic experience of beauty and creativity. As he is not yet verbal, my speculation is based both on my observation as well as my own sensory aesthetic experience with the baby. I've selected particular observations in order to highlight the development of these key concepts.1